Dark Paradise
by CurlsOfGlory
Summary: At first, everything was fine; whether it is because Lily was too young to see the evil or because good was still prevailing, it's hard to say. T for death


**A/N: I'm baaaaackkkkk! I could go on about how much Ive missed writing, but I don't want to bore everyone. So read, enjoy, favorite, and review!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing **

The wizarding world was not the place Lily remembered it being when she was eleven. When she first received her Hogwarts letter, everything had been new and exciting. Lily could still remember the moment she set foot in Diagon Alley like it happened yesterday. It was a place that in her eyes represented everything the hidden world of wizards was: pure and undeniable magic.

But nothing can ever stay the same: change is inevitable, and those who fight it are fools.

At first, everything was fine; whether it is because Lily was too young to see the evil or because good was still prevailing, it's hard to say. As a first year, she was too amazed by everything to see a single bad thing. For the first time in her young life, Lily was able to say that something was completely over her head—because there was no other way to state her brand new life as a muggle-born witch. As a second year, Lily was too consumed in things that twelve year old girls should be consumed with—like despising James Potter with a flaming passion—to see the darkness on the horizon of her personal paradise. Even as a third year, Lily was able to ignore the changes in her magical oasis that she now realized had been painfully obvious.

At the dawn of her fourth year, Lily Evans began to read _the Daily Profit_. Had she not subscribed to the paper, she might have remained innocent a little longer. But one who reads _the Profit _can't help but notice that in almost every edition someone has disappeared or someone is on trial for unspeakable things. In her fifth year, the wizarding world only continued its sharp decline into the depths of darkness. As a newly appointed Gryffindor prefect, Lily—along with her dear friend Remus Lupin— witnessed firsthand what most Slytherin households promoted whilst on their patrols of the dungeons. Both teens suffered various injuries from different hexes: some of which they had been taught in DADA, and others they'd only heard whisperings of among older students who aspired to fight dark wizards. The end of her fifth year marked the first thing that the wizarding war took away from Lily—Severus Snape.

By the wake of her sixth year, darkness had completely encompassed the wizarding world. Diagon Alley was no longer filled with bright colors and merry music. People didn't dawdle in between shops, they raced from one door to the next, never taking a moment to catch their breath. Wanted posters were plastered on any bare wall that could be found—each displaying the face of one of _his _followers.

Not even a semester into her second to last year, Lily had been attacked in the hallway more times than she could count. Their spells hurt and their harsh words hurt even more, but what stung the most was that these people—the ones who wanted her dead for the silliest of reasons—where the people that Sev had traded her in for. Each hex that hit her pale skin, each time she was escorted to the hospital wing by a friend or Marauder, merely served as a reminder that maybe she never really knew Snape the way she thought she did.

The beginning of her seventh year started out like any other: standing in front of the wall that she well knew was the road to Platform 9¾. Even though she had said goodbye every year for the past six years, tears still stung the corners of her bright green eyes as she tightly hugged her parents goodbye and whispered to them how much she loved them and that she'd miss them every second.

Waving over her shoulder as she started to run at the barrier, Lily wished that Tuney had been there too.

~.~

On the morning of Halloween, Lily sat next to James Potter and Marlene McKinnon, idly munching on a muffin as she waited for a school owl to deliver the post. Often she wondered why she looked forward to reading the _Profit_ every day; after all, the news only grew darker with each issue that was published. You-Know-Who grew stronger as more and more pure-blood supremacists flocked to join his army, leaving Lily wondering how any good people could survive what had become a hell-hole.

"Could you pass the pumpkin juice, Lily?" James asked, smiling at her sweetly. As she reached out for the pitcher, Lily thought back on her relatively new friendship with James Potter—Marauder extraordinaire and fellow Head. She supposed James wouldn't have ever become her—dare she say it—friend if it weren't for Dumbledore's senile moment where he forgot that Remus Lupin and James Potter weren't the same person but in fact extremely different people.

Absent mindedly, Lily nibbled on her blueberry muffin as James refilled her cup of orange goodness before topping off his own. Though Lily wouldn't have ever guessed it by his previous actions, James was a sweetheart. Of course, she'd never tell him this for fear of it going straight to his already overlarge head and inflating his ego to the point where there wouldn't be any space for her in the head dorm any more. Secretly, she was glad that they were on a first name basis because he had proven to be a guiding light in a very dark place.

The familiar sound of hundreds of flapping wings snapped Lily out of her deep thought. Waiting expectantly for her outlet to the outside world and perhaps a letter from her parents to drop onto her lap, Lily swallowed the last bite of her muffin. A small, card was dropped onto her plate. Lily smiled, noticing the pink envelope. Her mother never failed to send her a weekly letter, always encased in a light pink envelope.

Even though she had grown to expect the unexpected, seeing a Ministry owl land on her plate was the last thing Lily would have wished on anyone. Gingerly pulling the letter from the owl's leg, she felt her blood run cold at the right of the black seal that graced the parchment.

_No_.

Frantically shoving the letter into her robe pockets, Lily shooed the wretched owl away from her plate. Feeling ill, she pushed her full glass of pumpkin juice as far away from her as she could get it.

"Who's the letter from?" James asked his mouth still full of bacon.

"Oh, just my parents, I'll read it later. I really must be getting to Transfiguration now, Professor McGonagall said she needed to talk to me," the petite redhead answered quickly. Releasing the deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding, Lily wondered if she had responded a little too fast to be believable. Before anyone could say a word, Lily jumped up from her spot on the bench and bolted out of the Great Hall.

Refusing to let anyone who might pass by see her tears, Lily tipped her nose towards the ground and her beautiful, long locks to hide her distraught face.

~.~

_To Ms. Lily Marie Evans, _

_It is with great sorrow that I write this letter. I am afraid that I must inform you that the Dark Mark was found above you house, 9a Quay Street, St Ives, Cornwall, this morning. Mr. and Mrs. Edward and Poppy Evans, along with your grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Abe and Magnolia Davies were pronounce deceased at the arrival of ministry officials. Their funeral is scheduled to be two Sundays from today. An Auror will be in the Headmaster's office at eight A.M sharp to escort you and a friend of your choice to their funeral. _

_Sincerely, _

_Millicent Bagnold_

Millicent Bagnold, Minister of Magic

~.~

And thus began the decline of Lily Evans.

~.~

Three days had passed since the ministry owl flew in to Hogwarts and forever altered her life. Three bloody days since the last letter she'd ever receive from her mother was dropped onto her empty plate. Three painfully long days since the war truly hit home.

As Lily patrolled the empty corridor, not really paying attention to her surroundings, she picked at her cuticles—a nervous habit that she'd developed in light of recent events. Still unable to face the unfortunate truth, the head girl hadn't told a soul. Telling someone would mean admitting that she would never hug her mother again or learn to knit with her grandmother. She'd never smell her grandfather's pipe at the kitchen table or listen to her father yell at the telly as he watched a Manchester United football game. Her mother's last letter still remained unopened on her bedside table. For whatever reason, opening that letter was scarier than You-Know-Who in the flesh and blood.

As Lily wandered, lost in thought, she failed to notice that she had walked into Slytherin territory at roughly eleven at night, a dangerous place for anyone to be. Especially a Gryffindor Head Girl who was traveling alone in an emotionally distraught state.

"Why if it isn't our Mudblood Head Girl, fancy seeing you here at this time of night," the familiar voice of Mulciber crooned. "I thought you were supposed to be a bright, you witch. But bright, young witches don't crawl into scary places at night, all alone." Lily looked at the buckles on her Mary Jane heals, unable to muster the power to retort back. Yelping softly as a clammy hand gripped her chin and forced her to look into Mulciber's cold, empty eyes, Lily remained docile and unthreatening.

"What Mudblood, you don't have any smart-arsed remarks for me? Finally learned your place on this earth I see."

"I-its past curfew, you s-should return to your dorm." Lily whispered her lips barely moving.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it since you're mumbling." Mulciber laughed a cold, slimy laugh as he shoved Lily to the ground. Paralyzed from fear and unable to live up to her house's reputation, Lily just sat on the frigid floor, her mouth open a bit like a guppy's.

"I. Asked. You. A. Question. Mudblood," Mulciber punctured each word with a kick to the gut, causing Lily to curl up in the fetal position. Her breath had become short and sporadic as pain seeped into her small body.

"N-nothing. I-I said n-nothing," Lily whispered through the tears.

"That's what I thought. Leviocorpis," Mulciber cackled as Lily was hoisted into the air by her ankle. "Nice knickers you've got there Mudblood, I never pegged you as the type to wear lace." The Slytherin sauntered towards the frightened Gryffindor and reached out, snapping the elastic of her red knickers.

"P-p-please, don't d-do that." Lily's voice started to shake something awful as Mulciber snapped the waistband of her knickers a second time.

"Oh don't flatter yourself, I wouldn't waste my energy on a filthy animal like you. _Liberacorpus_."

Dropping Lily just as quickly as he'd hoisted her into the air, she landed with a sickening crunch on her left shoulder. Probing it with her index finger, she quickly assumed that it was at least dislocated, if not worse. Her attention was snapped away from her shoulder as she felt a sudden sting on her back—definitely the work of a half-way decent stinging jinx. Lily had nothing left in her—all she was able to do was lie on the dungeon floor and take what Mulciber shot at her.

"Is little-miss Head Girl not going to fight back?"

Shaking her pounding head, Lily closed her eyes. Darkness overtook her brain as Mulciber cackled loudly. Slowly though, his cackling grew more and more distant, causing Lily to wonder if he was leaving. Before she could open her eyes to confirm her suspicions, Lily lost consciousness.

~.~

The rest of the night passed as more of a blur than anything else. Lily vaguely remembered pulling herself off of the dungeon floor and stumbling blindly to the Head Dorms. Unable to reach her own bed, she had collapsed on the couch in front of a dying fire and let herself fade into blackness again, not a second thought about what might happen if someone were to find her in the state she was.

~.~

"Lily, wake up," whispered a deep, familiar voice. Peeling her eye lids off of her dry eyeballs, Lily looked into the deep, hazel eyes of James Potter. She couldn't help but notice that his hair was sticking up in every direction and his glasses were knocked askew on his face.

"What happened?" He whispered as he helped her sit up.

"Why do you care?" Lily spat, reverting back to her old ways. James, unfazed by her temper, slid in next to Lily and wrapped a strong arm around her. Unable to muster the will to move, Lily allowed her body to melt into his side.

"We're friends Lily—friends care. It's kind of a trend that's been followed since the beginning of mankind."

Lily sat, silent, her gaze fixed on the dying fire in front of her.

"Everyone's worried Lils. Since you received those letters, you haven't been yourself. Not eating much, paler than usual, quiet. And now you've beat to hell and back. Let someone in Lily. If not me, then Marlene, or Alice!" Grabbing her chin, James forced Lily to look him in the eye. "You're not alone Lily."

Cracking, Lily began talking before it registered that sound was coming out of her moving lips. "Mulciber. He found me when I was patrolling." Lily's voice was barely above a whisper. It cracked slightly as she thought back on last night's events. As James began to run his fingers through her blood-encrusted hair, she pressed herself more against his warm body, seeking the comfort of human contact.

"Didn't you fight back?"

"No."

Lily's answer left both heads speechless. Neither knew what to say—nothing seemed to cover all bases that needed to be covered.

"Why?" James' question reminded Lily of a small child who wanted to know 'why' to the most impossible things.

"I couldn't find it within me to fight him."

James' hand faltered in its stroking, as though of all the possibilities in the world, he hadn't expected that specific answer.

"What else is wrong Lils?" James asked as he pulled Lily's small frame closer to his much larger one.

"N-nothing."

"Then why have you been all out of sorts these past couple of days?" James asked, his tone very sage like, not unlike the one Remus often used.

Lily had planned on denying everything. Remus, who would be rebounding from a full moon, needed James more than she did right now. But when she parted her lips, her words didn't match her thoughts.

"My family is dead. And it's my fault."

Silent sobs began to rack her body as she leaned into James' wiry shoulder. James continued to stroke her hair, calmly letting her soak his loose jumper. James cupped Lily's wet cheeks in his large, calloused hands, looking her straight in the eye. Lily felt a blush rush to her cheeks, feeling embarrassed about showing such incredible weakness in front of someone else. "You have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to blame yourself for." James' kind words only brought on another onslaught of tears, causing Lily's entire body to shake rather violently.

When her sobs finally quieted themselves, Lily whispered, "Their funeral is in two weeks."

James looked down at his distraught friends and kissed her forehead tenderly. "I'll be there."

~.~

_My Dearest Lily, _

_How has your second month of your seventh year been? Both your father and I miss you something awful. Christmas holiday can't come fast enough for us either darling! The house is far too quiet without you and your sister, even if it is a bit more peaceful. On the topic of Petunia, she is recently engaged to Vermin—oh excuse me, I meant Vernon. Silly me, I can't seem to spell the poor whale of a lad's name. She seems happier than she has in a while, and because of that I am happy for her, though I do wish she could have been happy with someone with a sense of humor. Perhaps you should write her—I know you feel as though your relationship with her is far too broken to be repaired, but won't you try? Even if it is just for your mum? _

_Your father just bought a boat. I tried to tell him that there's no point in buying one when it's nearly November, but you know that man; he's as stubborn as they come. I have started to have a Saturday brunch with Phyllis (you know Phyllis; she's the quiet lady who walks her cats on pink leashes). In case you were wondering, her cats' names are Dog, Fish, and Platypus. When she's not talking about her cats, she's shockingly normal. Granted, she does talk about her cats a good deal. _

_Again, we're missing you an awful lot. Behave yourself (not that we have to worry) and above all else—have fun! This is your last year of school, you won't want to look back and regret things you never did. _

_Lots of love, _

_Mum and Dad XOXOXOXOXO_

_P.S. I thought you should know that I despised your father up until our last year at University. Maybe this James character isn't as bad as you used to think he was… _

~.~

**A/N: So what did you think? Let me know in one of your REVIEWS! **


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